Southern Crushed Concrete

HOUSTON-AREA COMPANY EXPANDS FAR BEYOND RECYCLING OLD PAVEMENT

May 31, 2017

“Komatsu loaders clearly stood out from the competition”

In the early 1990s, recycling old pavement
and demolition debris was gaining steam, and
companies such as Southern Crushed Concrete
were the engines pulling the train. Throughout
the past 26 years it has consistently gained
momentum, and today The Woodlands-based
firm is the top producer of recycled products
in Texas.

“In the mid-1980s, the state recognized
that recycled materials could be used as road
base, and that certainly put things in motion,”
recalled Jim Miller, General Manager for
Southern Crushed Concrete. “Our founder,
Wayne Webber, saw an opportunity, so he
started Southern Crushed Concrete in 1991,
and we have been expanding ever since.”

Miller was Southern Crushed Concrete’s
original employee, and he’s witnessed a
dramatic transformation of the company
during its two-plus-decade history. “Our first
job involved recycling nearly 60,000 tons of old
apron for Houston’s Hobby Airport,” recalled
Miller. “We removed the existing pavement,
crushed it on site, and it was reused as base.
From there, we opened up yards to take in old
materials and turn them into new products.”

Southern Crushed Concrete – an
independent subsidiary of Webber, LLC - now
has 18 locations that include yards around
the Houston Metroplex, in Galveston and
in Corpus Christi. It also does demolition,
runs a sand-mining operation in the Houston
area, offers mobile crushing, supplies hot-mix
asphalt and recently added trucking services.
It runs roughly 150 trucks per day to collect,
distribute and deliver materials.

Concrete to the core

Although it has expanded its services,
Southern Crushed Concrete’s core business
remains the same. The company accepts old
concrete and asphalt materials from a diverse
group of customers that includes everyone
from private homeowners disposing of a small
amount of driveway or sidewalk paving, to
large demolition and other contractors who
bring in multiple loads weighing hundreds or
thousands of tons.

The firm processes the concrete and asphalt
to make bull rock, cement-treated base,
railroad ballast, riprap and new hot mix that
includes a percentage of old asphalt. In total, it
recycles close to 2 million tons of concrete, and
nearly 100,000 tons of asphalt annually, turning
that into approximately 2.6 million tons of
usable aggregate products. It also supplies
roughly a half million tons of asphalt each year.
The sand-mining operation provides additional
materials, including cement-stabilized sand
and concrete sand.

“Concrete and asphalt recycling is one of the
greenest industries because it reduces the need
for virgin materials and keeps old materials out
of the landfill; in fact, our operations save almost
1.5 million cubic yards of landfill space each
year,” explained Miller. “Another benefit is that
during processing we remove 1,200 to 1,400 tons
of steel rebar each month that is then recycled.

“We want to make recycling as convenient
as possible for customers, so we intentionally
located several yards around the Houston
area,” Miller added. “Having multiple
locations gives customers convenient places
to get rid of materials, which lowers trucking
and fuel costs as well as emissions. In turn, the
same can be said for customers looking to pick
up our end products.”

Through the years, an increasingly larger
portion of Southern Crushed Concrete’s materials
have come from its demolition operation, which
offers removal of concrete and asphalt from
roads and parking lots. It also demolishes close to
40 bridges per year, and recently added building
teardowns to its list of services.

“Demolitions are a natural extension of our
recycling efforts, so we integrated that into
the business several years ago,” Miller noted.
“It was a way to augment an already steady
stream of materials coming into our yards.
We have completed numerous high-profile
demo jobs, including the Dallas Street bridge
spanning Interstate 45. We closed the interstate
in downtown Houston and removed the entire
structure within a 24-hour window.”

Southern Crushed Concrete’s demolition
group typically has 110 to 130 jobs going in
any one year, and is currently working on
four removal projects on U.S. Highway 290 in
Houston. The projects are in their third year,
and they are expected to take another 18 months
to complete.

Longevity with Komatsu, WPI

In 2003, Southern Crushed Concrete
compared competitive wheel loaders. After
putting several major brands through their
paces, the company selected Komatsu.
Since then it has built a fleet that includes
31 WA500 loaders, 23 varying-sized excavators
and four D61PX-23 dozers.

“Komatsu loaders clearly stood out from the
competition in terms of cycle time and visibility
during testing,” said Miller. “We continue
to add them because they also have proven
to be durable, productive and fuel-efficient.
We routinely get more than 25,000 hours with
no major issues or repairs. At the end of their
service life, the wheel loaders have excellent
resale value.”

Southern Crushed Concrete also enjoys
longevity from its excavators, often running
them to 12,000 hours or more. During the past
few years it upgraded from PC300s and PC400s
to Tier 4 PC360LC and PC490LC models.

“The PC360s are our mainline demolition
machines,” reported Miller. “They give us
great power to run buckets and attachments for
removing pavement, but they are also easily
transported. The PC400s were our primary
machines, and they were good, but the PC360s
offer us just as much production and power, so
we believe we’re able to do as much or more in
a slightly smaller package. We use the PC490LC
size as needed. We keep one at the sand-mining
operation to load trucks.”

Southern Crushed Concrete worked with
WPI and Sales Rep Mark Rickett to acquire the
machinery and develop specialty buckets for the
loaders. “Mark and WPI helped us configure the
buckets to more readily handle the mix of hard
concrete and steel by putting the wear items in
the right place and setting the tooth gapping
for maximum performance. They also worked
with us on items such as the proper tire size.
Mark and WPI equipped us with a PC490 that
has a LaBounty sheer for cutting steel on the
Dallas Street bridge project. They also set up our
excavators with demolition packages.

“We appreciate that they track our newer Tier 4
machines and perform the routine services under
Komatsu CARE. That ensures the work is done
on schedule and minimizes our downtime,”
added Miller. “Mark and WPI take great care
of us. We have built, and continue to have, a
strong relationship.”

Still growing

Southern Crushed Concrete continues to
grow, according to Miller. The company took on
mobile crushing within the past few years, and
that’s an area where Miller sees the potential for
additional expansion.

“I see more turnkey projects where we crush
on site, leave the material and move on to another
location,” predicted Miller. “We believe there is
plenty of room to expand demolition. Our current
sand-dredging location is nearly out of material,
and we’re in the process of opening a new one.

“A good deal of our growth has occurred by
acquiring other companies, and I can see that
continuing,” he continued. “We are also looking
to add more asphalt plants and expand in that
market. We want to be a dynamic company;
we want to grow. The plans are in place
to do that.”